Tesla pushes for Elon and Kia exploits GenAI hype

Welcome back to Mobility TechCrunch – your central hub for news and information on the future of transport. Sign up here for free – just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Is it me, or is it You’re here the board is a little additional these days, as he tries to convince shareholders to vote in favor of relocating the company to Texas and approve the CEO That of Elon Musk A $56 billion wage deal? This may be because the board fears that none of these measures will pass. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tesla Robyn Denholm told the Financial Times that the company must climb “Mount Everest” to convince shareholders before the annual meeting on June 13.

The result has been a parade of appeals and additional proxy documents that make the case for the controversial pay deal – remember! – was invalidated in January by a Delaware court.

Do you think shareholders will say yes?

A small bird

This week, TC contributor Jagmeet Singh I didn’t hear a little nugget; he saw it.

During a trip to Dubai, Singh opened the BluSmart ride-hailing app and discovered that the India-based company had quietly launched a service in the UAE’s most populous city.

Rumors that BluSmart was planning to expand into Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been circulating for months. After spotting the new service area, TechCrunch received confirmation from BluSmart co-founder Anmol Jaggi that a pilot project had started on Tuesday, with 100 Audi E-Tron SUVs and 130 drivers in the city. The official launch will take place in early June, he said.

Do you have any advice to give us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or see these instructions for how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.

Offers!

Presage, a startup making mid-duty electric utility vehicle chassis, has piqued my interest since I visited its Southern California-based headquarters earlier this year. The market opportunity to electrify medium-duty vehicles has always seemed obvious to me since the segment covers a wide spectrum, from school buses and campers to delivery vans and emergency response vehicles.

And it appears that interest – at least in the Harbinger chassis – is high. The company announced this week at ACT Expo that it has locked in $400 million in vehicle pre-orders from customers, including a multi-year order from Bimbo Bakeries USA, the U.S. business of Grupo Bimbo. Thor Industries, the recreational vehicle manufacturer behind the Airstream, Jayco, Tiffin and Thor Motor Coach brands, also placed an order.

Harbinger also announced this week that it has closed an additional $13 million in Series A funding from investors including the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, managed by Greycroft. The additional funding brings its Series A funding round to $73 million.

Other offers that caught my attention…

South 8, a battery startup focused on improving the cold weather performance of electric vehicles, recently attracted new funding from Porsche Ventures in the form of a SAFE rating, which will be applied to a Series B round that l The business is starting to pick up. The amount of investment from Porsche Ventures was not disclosed.

Based in Seattle Land AI and New Brunswick, based in Canada Potential – two startups focused on off-road autonomous vehicle technology – have both launched a seed round. Overland raised a $10 million seed round led by Point72 Ventures, and Potential raised a CA$2 million (~$1.5 million) extension to its seed round led by Brightspark Ventures, an equity -Canadian risk in the start-up phase.

Spiroan African electric two-wheeler company, has secured a $50 million credit facility from the African Export-Import Bank.

Notable readings and other information

Autonomous vehicles

Aurore Innovation has unveiled a new autonomous truck, loaded with its autonomous vehicle technology and manufactured by Volvoit could be on public roads as early as this summer.

THE British Government signed into law the Automated Vehicles Act, a law that regulates self-driving vehicles and is expected to introduce the technology to public roads within two years.

Electric vehicles, charging and batteries

Airbnb And Charging point have partnered to “make it easier” for guests to install EV chargers on their homes by offering discounts on chargers and associated installation services.

Audi plans to jointly develop a new EV platform designed for China with its partner SAIC.

THE Chevrolet Equinox EV, with an estimated range of 319 miles on the front-wheel-drive model, is arriving at dealerships. The Equinox EV has a starting price of $43,295. However, GM says a cheaper $34,995 version will be available later this year.

Kia has unveiled the EV3 – the next electric vehicle in its range. One thing that caught my attention: he used OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLM) to create a highly customized version of ChatGPT for his embedded assistant.

Influence map published an analysis last week that I missed. The report, which examined the climate lobbying activities of 15 of the largest automakers, found that all except Tesla actively advocated against at least one policy favoring electric vehicles.

McLaren Automotive launches into the hyperbike business. The company has revealed four limited edition e-bike models: the Extreme 600, Extreme 250, Sport 600, and Sport 250. No word on pricing!

THE United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into an accident in April involving the VinFast VF 8 all-electric SUV that claimed the lives of a family of four.

Yoshi Mobility, a mobile car care startup that raised $26 million in April, is launching a mobile charging service for electric vehicles that will debut on General Motors’ BrightDrop Zevo 600 vehicles. The company aims to bring the service to market by early next year.

VTC

Uber And Lyft reached a deal with Minnesota that will result in higher wages and protections for drivers while placing limits on state government. Journalist TC Rebecca Bellan explores who wins, who loses and who pays.

This week’s wheels

What is “This Week’s Wheels”? This is an opportunity to discover the different transport products that we are testing, whether it is an electric or hybrid car, an electric bicycle or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle. Keep an eye out for more on my time behind the wheel of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 2024, as well as two EV surprises that I can’t mention yet! Later this summer I plan to venture into Fiat500etest some electric bikes and much more!